Nepali migrant workers rest after a day of work on foam mattresses, between 1 and 8 centimeters … [+]
It was just after midnight on Saturday when soccer journalists in Europe received a media release from FIFA, soccer’s global governing body. The timing was peculiar and so was the content – not just for what it said – consecrating Saudi Arabia’s bid for the 2034 World Cup – but precisely for what it didn’t say. At long last, FIFA had published the long-awaited Qatar report, which addressed the question of legacy and remedies for migrant workers whose labor and suffering allowed Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup.
The report by FIFA’s subcommittee on human rights and social responsibility, including a study by the consultancy group Human Level, suggests that FIFA has “a responsibility” to compensate migrant workers. FIFA waited almost a year to release it.
In the study, Human Level writes: “The study underscores that meaningful, timely, and effective remedy for World Cup-related impacts on workers is achievable. FIFA’s role, in collaboration with other stakeholders, is crucial in ensuring it takes place. Leveraging its reputation and influence, FIFA can bring others along to contribute to remedy, and ensure that a strong positive legacy of the first Arab World Cup also benefits those who contributed the most to its delivery.”
Except, FIFA has ignored the recommendations of its subcommittee and Human Level. Instead, last Wednesday, the world federation rolled out details of the $50 million 2022 World Cup legacy fund. The attached media release did not refer to ‘migrant workers’ once. The fund will be spent with the World Health Organisation, World Trade Organisation and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
A FIFA spokesperson said that “the study did not specifically constitute a legal assessment of the obligation to remedy”.
The study provides considerations for FIFA to compensate workers, ranging from ‘no cherry-picking of impacts to be remediated’ to ‘no forward-looking remedy without backward-looking remedy’. Human Level writes: “The situation of a widow who has lost her family’s breadwinner, a worker on dialysis for the rest of his life from working in Qatar’s extreme heat, or a worker in poverty who is owed months of wages is not put right by changes to the system that enabled their individual harm to occur.”
FIFA’s own subcommittee backed up Human Level: “There are workers who have contributed to the resounding success of the World Cup… who have not yet benefited from any, or any adequate remediation”
The subcommittee advised FIFA “to dedicate the World Cup 2022 legacy fund in full or in part to further strengthen the competition’s legacy for migrant workers” and stated that “timely remedy is of the essence.”
When asked by this reporter if FIFA would act on the recommendations of the Qatar Report, a FIFA spokesperson wrote: “All reports and recommendations were considered during a comprehensive review by the FIFA administration and relevant bodies. While all recommendations could not be met, practical and impactful elements were retained. It should be noted that the study did not specifically constitute a legal assessment of the obligation to remedy.”
“The creation of the FIFA World Cup 2022 Legacy Fund was unanimously endorsed by the FIFA Council following a proposal made by the FIFA Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee. A Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund was established in Qatar in 2018, and FIFA believes the new Legacy Fund, endorsed by recognised international agencies, is a pragmatic and transparent initiative that will encompass social programmes to help people most in need across the world.”
DOHA, QATAR – MARCH 31: FIFA President Gianni Infantino talks during the 72nd FIFA Congress on March … [+]
FairSquare’s assessment of the legacy fund was however damning. Reiterating that FIFA is unfit to govern soccer, the NGO’s co-director James Lynch said: “FIFA has plumbed new depths this week. Its $50 million Qatar 2022 ‘legacy fund’ offers nothing for the workers who suffered building the tournament, completely ignoring the advice of its own expert human rights report.”
Qatar, the first nation in the Middle East to stage the global finals, drew major criticism for its treatment of migrant workers, who were often ensnared by the kafala system, which yields ‘unchecked powers to employers’ according to Human Rights Watch. Workers often suffered passport confiscation, wage theft, inhumane working hours, intimidation, and reprisals from employers.
Soccer officials mostly displayed a glaring disregard for their suffering. At a Milken Conference, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said migrant workers gain pride from hard work and Qatar World Cup chief Nasser Al Khater stated that ‘Death is a natural part of life, whether it’s at work, whether it’s in your sleep.’
Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Labour Rights and Sport, said: “It is no mystery why FIFA has sought to keep this independent report hidden for so long – it clearly concludes that the organisation has a responsibility to ensure remedy including compensation to hundreds of thousands of workers who suffered abuses connected to the 2022 World Cup. It validates what human rights organisations, trade unions, fans, and now even FIFA’s own human rights sub-committee have been saying – it is time for FIFA to pay up.”
As ever, human rights groups have been vocal. Soccer officials, meanwhile, have maintained a deafening silence. After the conclusion of the 2022 World Cup, the Norwegian, Dutch and Danish soccer federations were the only three to return to the host nation to follow up on the tournament’s legacy. Today, the Dutch and the Danish have relented, leaving Norwegian FA president Lise Klaveness on her own.
A lawyer, Klaveness rose to global acclaim with her speech at the 2022 FIFA Congress in Doha, taking a stance for migrant workers and the LGBT+ community. At the next FIFA Congress, Klaveness got the world governing body to commission the report by the subcommittee. Late last year, the NFF president met with teenage migrant workers from East Africa in the Qatari capital.
“FIFA must now implement the recommendations of the report, ensuring that the commitment to a human rights-based legacy is honored,” said Klaveness. “The migrant workers who contributed to the Qatar World Cup need to be justly compensated.”
She warned: “While the Legacy Fund is a welcome and valuable contribution to the World Cup’s legacy, it is essential to recognize the distinction between legacy and remedy. The Fund is not a substitute for remedy or compensation for human rights violations.”
FIFA then buried the Qatar report twice: first with its legacy fund and then by publishing it under the cover of darkness. A FIFA spokesperson wrote that “FIFA respectfully points out that what is the middle of the night for one person is not the middle of the night for another.”
The attitude perhaps proves once and for all that Zurich has turned its back on migrant workers. That’s what the actual media release once again suggested: Saudi Arabia’s bid for the 2034 World Cup was given the highest bidding score in FIFA history, largely glossing over the kingdom’s troubling human rights record. FIFA rated the human rights risk as “medium”.
Previously, several NGOs had cricitized the assessment of the bid’s human rights policy by law firm Clifford Chance, but this time Amnesty went a step further, calling FIFA’s evaluation of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup bid “an astonishing whitewash of the country’s atrocious human rights record.”
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